Monthly Archive: August 2016

The Next Station. A collaborative work by Cities and Memories and London Sound Survey, the Next Station is a sound map of the London Underground and, “by remixing and reimagining every sound it creates[,] an alternative sound world based on the experience and memory of the iconic Tube.”

In fairness, Wall Street barons have to commute to their Hampton estates by helicopter because the traffic on the Long Island Express Way is horrible (yes, tongue was planted firmly in cheek). Interestingly this issue is pitting the 1% against the 1%, though, admittedly, the helicopter crowd may more accurately be described as the .001%. Still, it’s easy to take sides here, because noise is noise is noise is noise. The airport will never be shutdown, but good luck to the activists. May they at least get some relief.

Rachel Nuwer, writing for audiblerange.com, examines the worldwide efforts to preserve the world’s disappearing languages, historic recordings (particularly radio), nature sounds, and the sounds of vanishing quiet places. Snippets of sound are dotted throughout this article. It’s well worth the read and listen.

Dr. Daniel Fink, a leading noise activist, responds to New York Times’s article, “Becoming Disabled,” by offering a simple, effective, and no-cost accommodation to assist those with hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis: turn down the volume of the amplified sound! As Dr. Fink points out, “[d]isability accommodations benefit everyone, not just those with disabilities.” Turning down the volume in places of public accommodation will make them more accessible to those with hearing disabilities, provide a quieter environment for everyone present, and could, in fact, protect those not afflicted from joining the ranks of people with hearing injury.

Dr. Fink encourages anyone with a hearing disability whose request for accommodation was ignored to file a complaint with the local agency charged with protecting the rights of the disabled. In New York City residents can file a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights.

No doubt you are wondering what goes on at a quiet clubbing event. Good question. According to Crain’s, at a quiet clubbing event partygoers wear “wireless headphones that connect to the music of one of several live DJs, Each headset has a color LED light that indicates which music the wearer is listening to. The atmosphere is clublike, with strobe lights and booze, but the noise level is lower.”

While we applaud the desire to lower noise levels, we can’t get the image out of our heads of a roomful of people dancing and singing along to different playlists in an otherwise quiet room. And what about those who think that quiet clubbing is antisocial? The former banker/current club diva disagrees, stating that quiet clubbing is “the opposite of antisocial because unlike a traditional club, people can take off their headphones and actually have a normal conversation without screaming at the person standing next to them.” Finally, a solution to the problem of trying to have a conversation in a club!

That said, taken to its logical conclusion, and thanks to virtual reality, soon anyone can throw a quiet clubbing party in his or her own apartment. Just grab a pair of VR googles, put on your 3D headphones, and dance with yourself and your virtual friends.

Debora Robertson, writing for The Telegraph, reports about the efforts by Svante Borjesson, director of the hearing charity Oir es Clave (“Hearing is Key”), who has launched an initiative called “Eating Without Noise.” Borjesson signed up 22 restaurants to join the initiative, though most seem on the higher end. Which is a shame, because a comfortable restaurant should be available for everyonthe rich. That said, when you consider the effect noise has on the dining experience, it’s foolhardy for any restaurateur to ignore the acoustics of their restaurants. As Robertson notes:

Yep, noise affects flavor. And it’s important is to remember that a visit to a restaurant, especially with family or friends, is about much more than the food. Robertson writes:

Most of us go to restaurants not just for the food, but also to enjoy the company of our friends. If we can’t hear what they’re saying, we might as well stay at home with Netflix and a bowl of pasta. But there are few things more enjoyable than sitting in a beautiful restaurant, eating something wonderful, catching up on the latest scandals and (possibly) watching other diners creating scandals of their own. Is it too much to ask for the gentle, sound-absorbing comfort of a well-insulated floor, the odd soft banquette, perhaps – whisper it – a tiny swathe of curtain?

Short answer: No, it’s not too much to ask.

And this is the perfect opportunity to introduce our sister site, Quiet City Maps, where we review restaurants, coffee shops, bars, parks, and privately owned public spaces based on how loud they are (or, one hopes, aren’t). The focus at Quiet City Maps is comfort, i.e., whether the space allows for easy conversation. We have started in Manhattan and hope to launch an app before very long. And then? Onward to Brooklyn, Queens, and points beyond!

Surely the neighbors must have very sensitive hearing to be annoyed by the music accompanying these clases, yes? Well, no. You see, the Zumba motivational class is “held in the parking lot of the Koinonia Baptist Church.” I assume the church members don’t even attempt to proselytize in the neighborhood.

Open floor plans, particularly poorly executed plans that are intended to shove as many bodies into the smallest possible space, hurt employee morale and interfere with work. Many employees may resent a perceived loss of status as they are removed from offices and given a space for which there is little or no privacy. But open floor plans do more than hurt employees’ self-esteem. Dr Matthew Davis, a professor of the psychology of office design at Leeds University Business School, has researched “the poor hygiene and frequent distractions of open-plan offices,” with one report finding that “the loss of productivity [was] so great in an open-plan office that it outweigh[ed] the money saved by putting everyone in the same room.”

So what is business doing in response? Apparently, “organisations are now seeking flexible, modern offices with private pods where workers can hunker down without interruption, with protocols such as no talking on mobile phones, for instance, and no eating.” Or perhaps your employer will invest in a “chair with zip-up sides.”

Or CEOs could stop listening to the finance guys when making decisions about workplace design and opt for space that lets their employees do their work. Just throwing that out there.